Thursday, June 28, 2007

Makeups/Playoffs

As is customary in spring and summer in Houston, we've had a lot of rain and there are numerous matches still to be made up. Citywide playoffs begin on July 12th, but there are still a few questions to be answered before then.

In 4.0, the second slot from Division I is still in question, as is the second slot in woeful Division II. In Division III there is still a mathematical possibility that Rice can be overtaken for the second spot.

With the playoffs in 4.0 having two four team groups, it appears that Group I will feature Lakeside, JCC Dudes and Rice. Group II will have the Hurricanes, Chancellor's and a competent team from Division I (Lost Forest Hackers or Copperfield Copperheads). The Hurricanes have been rewarded for their season-long excellence and will not have a great team standing in their way.

In 4.5 it appears that Ssshhhwing will win Division I, though with a makeup against Jedi Knights there is still the possibility they will finish second. I haven't done the math on how the Kingwood/Hangovers division will end up. It MAY even depend on the finish of the Green/Dibua slugfest that was so rudely interrupted a few weeks back. Division III appears to be Sugar Creek in first place and the Black Sheep in second.

I'm making assumptions, of course, but assuming Kingwood comes out on top and that Ssshhhwing hangs on, the playoffs will have Group I: Ssshhhwing, Hangovers and Sugar Creek and Group II: Jedi Knights, Black Sheep and Kingwood. Seems like that first group is pretty tough.

In 5.0, there is a big match slated to go tonight as the Met and Rice finally square off in their makeup match. A win by Rice will make the Met's final match against Lost Forest quite interesting. (I'm assuming here that there are no disqualifications on the way) If Rice wins tonight by a 2-1 score, they will be just one line ahead of the Met and will be in dire straights. A 3-0 win by Rice will make the Met-Lost Forest makeup verrrrry interesting. I'm not sure if Rice has the manpower to pull off a 3-0 shocker tonight.

28 comments:

  1. Schwing all the way to Sectionals Baby!! Don't underestimate Danny Vu or Christopher Hunckler they are just as Good as anyone in the singles right now.

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  2. In 4.5 its going to come down to kingwood and the benzon hit squad. Those teams have far more sandbaggers than anyone else and that is going to make the difference. Any news on lost forest protesting in 5.0? Thats a foolproof way for them to get back into things.

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  3. I think anything can happen once everyone is out there at LLTC in the heat at city playoffs.

    Don't count anyone in as a lock.

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  4. Yeah it's totally going to come down to who doesn't pass out and who wants it more in the heat. Should be an interesting city playoff...

    Does Hernan from Lost Forest really ever protest stuff or is that just rumor? It doesn't seem like he cares that much to me.

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  5. Although Pool 1 in the 4.0s (Rice/JCC/Lakeside) looks much more difficult than Pool 2 (Hurricanes/Chancelors/Sienna/Copperfield or Lost Forest) I bet you will not hear anyone in Pool 1 complain that they are not in pool 2 with the Hurricanes. At least this way the top 2 teams will represent Houston in Sectionals. There should be an interesting and fun-to-watch slugfest during citywide occuring in Pool 1. I bet the winner of that pool ends up having a loss (maybe three teams end up 2-1 with whoever comes out of IV going 0-3) and it may require multiple tie-breakers to figure out who wins.

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  6. Congrats to the NOHO 4.0 team from Cypresswood for winning the NOHO section and advancing to Sectionals. This team includes many folks who play on HTA teams and participate in Fall/Spring HTA leagues. Also, they won't be a pushover at Sectionals.

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  7. That NoHo team will be a push over after all the Hurricane players leave.

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  8. You find out a lot about a team when they default all five lines when they feel they are out of the running instead of thinking of the other teams still in it! The Yutts managed to sit there best two players in one make-up round and default five lines in another all against the Kingwood team.

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  9. If you have two rounds to make up against the same team and only end up playing one round and taking a default in another...which round is the defaulted round? Can you choose the round that is more beneficial to your team standings since the other teams lines will be thrown out from the same defaulted round.

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  10. Looks like rice did pull off the 3-0 win. Assuming lost forest wins and protests illegal player john guerrero they can control their destiny.

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  11. I wonder what's going to Happen when everyone finds out that Jorge Cuesta played for University of Texas Pan American. Since he self rated doesn't that make him at least a 5.5 according to the USTA player Self Rating Guidelines. I suppose this can definitely stir things up in the 5.0 League.

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  12. Lost forest has the options on the table to take the league. Guerrero is a lock to lose a protest. Not sure about cuesta but he may lose a protest as well apparently. Look for lost forest to dq one or both of these players. To not do so just wouldnt make any sense.

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  13. It's going to be really, really pathetic if everyone just protests everyone else in order to win.

    Look at his record. Jorge's lost more than he has won in 5.0 and it took him three sets to take down Jochen Moser and then lost to some other 4.5 rated player in some tournament. He just beat Ward a 45s primarily doubles player 6-1, 7-6.

    Whoever just posted that comment is beyond pathetic and is obviouly trying to stir up unwarranted controversy again.

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  14. Jorge lost against Lost Forest. Twice. I don't think Hernan's that desperate.

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  15. Jorge Cuesta Self rated wrong and what makes him any different from Guererro. They both answered their self rating wrong and both should be punished. If you think just because Cuesta has lost some matches that makes him allowable to stay in the League then you are truly mistaken. He's under the radar plus the partners he played with aren't exactly 5.0's.

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  16. Wow take a look at Jorge Cuesta on Google. Lots of College backround. I think he's a slam dunk protest as well.

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  17. What a purist, someone please get him out of fantasy land and back to reality. Let's protest everyone and forget that ultimately, tennis is a game best settled on the court...

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  18. Don't they have rules before you step on the court or have things changed? A Self Rated player who has backround should be protested and will be protested and that's all there is to it. With those losses Cuesta has and that win over Januzzi the computer could bump Cuesta to 4.5 and that wouldn't be right!

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  19. Fukunaga definitely has the skill to be a 5.0 player so Cuesta losing with him is pretty big.

    If there are people freaking out bc he played on UT Pan Am, then they do need to get out and watch some more tennis or become better informed about how good teams are relatively.

    I guarantee you if you put Cuesta at 4.5 singles in the summer he would not win all his matches as is being insinuated. I don't know who's posting stuff against Jorge but it's either someone that just really really doesn't like us, or someone that is so purist that if this were true, should therefore be trying to retroactively disqualify everyone in the past as well...

    Instead, he's just pissed at Jorge who hasn't made any wave whatsoever in league until that post came up.

    Mind telling me who's the poster though the list of suspects is awfully short? DY

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  20. Obviously the poster was Red. He loves to distract attention from his own cheating with Green. However there are rules to be followed and it seems like Yang feels like he can just go by where he think somebody should be playing instead of the rules.

    Red and Green might be the biggest cheaters around but it doesn't mean Jorge shouldnt be sef rating correctly.

    Theres more corruption in tennis here than in my hometown New Orleans government.

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  21. Interesting. So if you are self-rated and not successful, then you should be "bumped" up. What about the players you lost to? Shouldn't they be rated even higher than you? Or the ones that had competitive scores against you? Should they also be bumped up to the same level as you? Don't stick to the stupid argument about the rating matrix, use some intelligent logic for once.

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  22. Just follow the rules Yang. Fill out the profile right.

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  23. No kidding David Yang has no credibility hes just as bad as Benzon. He obviously illegally rated himself 4.0 when he was playing at that level. If he could have had his was his 4.5 team would have been just like the San Antonio one last year.

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  24. sigh.. same old whining and complaining. just sound like all you guys have sour grapes again. if you can't hang then bump down. very simple solution. practice and improve your game then move back up. the market always corrects itself.

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  25. Amen. On to the next subject please.

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  26. Ok. I'd like to see who all of these people accusing me of cheating along a very similar vein as Red and Tim Green are. If you're going accuse me of it, you might as well tell me who you are as it's only fair. It's probably Red, but if not I'd like to know. It's not a big deal.

    When you just come into league, it's highly unlikely that you're going to have done tons of research on it. It's more likely that you have no idea what you're getting yourself into. Blame the captains for instilling the 'playing down' league propaganda and blame me for not caring much about the league and just wanting to play a little tennis with friends my first and second years. Did I kill anyone? No. Did I tank? Actually, no. Did I learn anything playing at 4.0? Yes.

    I'm sure that Davis Cup guy is having fun playing 4.5 because that's the type of player that should be playing there. I think I belong in 2.5 then so stop complaining. Oh wait he's legal, right? Don't give me that crap. As I recall, Henry Li was visually rated a 3.5 at one time. Either Henry or the visual rater must have been high, drunk or both. At least when I started to care and actually remembered matches I played and what team I was on, I moved immediately to higher levels I don't even belong at. What's wrong there?

    Hurricanes tried very hard to get me for their team this year. But I didn't want to do it because I realized I shouldn't, so I didn't. I honestly don't know if I would have gotten more crap for being on that team or this one. Seems like this one. Then again, this could just all be Red. Then again, he encouraged me to stay at 4.0.

    You are right about my visual rating of players though. I go by how well people play in league right now, what their background is, and what the average level of player is at each league level currently. You cannot blame me for trying to find a team that was competetive (by competetive I don't mean crush the competition)where league now stands. I do not have ringers or any players that purposefully tank. Everybody tries their hardest. I would encourage anybody to come out and hit with us if they don't believe that. I would never have predicted that we would have gotten this lucky, but we did. Give me crap about it only after you come out and hit with us and one of us kicks your butt while fighting a fulminant case of ebola. You might have multiple cases there. We would like to improve our games, not do anything at all costs to win. Give it a rest. DY

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  27. As of yesterday Jorge Cuesta and John Guererro have been protested.

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  28. Upset about the protests David? Then stop using illegal players and no one can protest you. It's that simple.

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